the things they carried by tim o'brien O’Brien seems drive to get as close to the truth as he can in his writing about his war experiences, whether real or fictionalized. That drive is both a personal...

5
Vietnam War and The Things They Carried: An Overview
Introduction
It is in the authority of the government that they can handle the crucial situation of wars waged over people; their hold the sovereign position and authoritative government officials deploy all possible tactics to win wars. However, some close and very strong debates have taken place about the fact checking procedure of wars fought by the army of United States. With particular reference given to Vietnam War in the 1960s, historians argue that the government deliberately did not tell the real story of war to the people. Some strong narratives are documented to support this ideology and Tim O’ Brian’s The Things They carried is a Series of short stories written in the same context. The stories are written in personal narrative form where the narrator goes through his experiences at war. His narratives are self-analytical; they justify that government applies all possible methods to imply deceitful methods as so called war strategy to avoid general panic in the minds of people.
The Things They Carried: Controversial War Heroism Propagated
In the context of examining Brian’s experience in The Things They carried, it can be inferred that “The government is unique among speakers because of its coercive power, its substantial resources, its privileged access to national security and intelligence information, and its wide variety of expressive roles as commander-in-chief, policymaker, educator, employer, property owner, and more. Precisely because of this power, variety, and ubiquity, the government’s speech can both provide great value and inflict great harm to the public. In wartime, specifically, the government can affirmatively choose to use its voice to inform, inspire, heal, and unite—or instead to deceive, divide, bully, and silence” (Norton, 2017).
    At first, it is significant to note here that war serves the theory that common civilians find some new heroes that work for their national integrity; these heroes belong to army of the nation who fight diligently at battlefronts to ensure that the national borders are well secured. When such soldiers return home, they receive massive amount of appreciation and acknowledgement. It is a customary way to welcome back the heroes of war; however, the truth is veiled from the general eye about the real suffering, the sacrifices that these heroes make as well as the loss of people and friends that they view right before them. In other words, there is a great deal of pain that these heroes go through. At times—like O’Brian states in his stories—this heroism is followed by a sense of guilt inspired from the actions of government.
    O’Brian initiates this guilt and war heroism link in some of...